Freaky (2020)

Directed by Christopher Landon. Starring Vince Vaughn, Kathryn Newton, Misha Osherovich, Celeste O’Connor, Katie Finneran, Uriah Shelton, Dana Drori, Alan Ruck, Melissa Collazo, Ezra Sexton. [R]

It’s “Freaky Friday…the 13th” as unpopular high school student, Millie (Newton), survives an attack by ancient dagger-wielding serial slasher, the Blissfield Butcher (Vaughn), only to wake up the next morning having swapped bodies with her attacker. Now, Millie is slicing and dicing her way through pesky students and faculty while the Butcher is, like, totally freaking out, omg! Another high-concept horror comedy from Blumhouse in a similar vein as director Landon’s Happy Death Day pictures, but not as creative or endearing; it runs out of ideas too early and the character stereotypes (popular she-devil, flamboyantly gay friend, dumb jock, etc.) aren’t developed enough to break from the tired mold. A couple of gore showcases and oodles of snappy attitude help a little, but the script runs out of gas too soon, and it’s ultimately too unbalanced because the “killer half” is so ill-defined—Vaughn is good fun impersonating a teenage girl, but Newton is erratic and off-key trying to bring a murderous maniac to credible life. Movie buffs will enjoy spotting a few nods toward Halloween.

48/100